Optimum Design Associates Blog

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The first episode of Outsourcing Things You Should Know, focusing on the oft-neglected subject of on-time delivery. Listen to Everett Frank and Sherri Hubbard of Optimum Design Associates discuss important metrics and methodologies you can utilize to help deliver on time, every time.

Customer satisfaction surveys consistently point to quote turnaround time as one of the greatest frustrations of electronic manufacturing services buyers. Here's a few things you can do to help speed up the contract manufacturers quote process.

What does security of supply mean? The term was originally used by the military to describe the methods of securing supply of items critical to military need (click
here for more on military usage). For non-military procurement, it means "designing a supply chain with a high probability of delivering what you need, when you need it" (
Lytica.com).

It's inevitable: sometimes you need to reschedule the backlog. Mitigating liability is the number one priority. Downturns are unpredictable, so proper preparation is necessary. Below are a few strategies that will allow you and your contract manufacturer to make it through.

Late deliveries from component suppliers are one the main sources of production delays, and their specific causes are endless. Causes can depend on the type of product being procured, the complexity and scope of a supply chain, and other wildcard variables such as economic and natural disasters. This article, however, focuses on four identifiable variables a contract manufacturer or OEM can control: loose internal processes, reactive processes, poor vendor management, and poor communication.

Materials is the root cause of at least 80% of missed delivery commitments. The only way to effectively drive consistent on-time delivery performance is by ruthlessly focusing on materials. Fortunately, material processes are very data-driven and can be successfully managed with a just a handful of crucial KPIs. The 4 crucial KPIs are:

1. Late Buy Actions

2. Items in Compression

3. Late Vendor POs

4. Push/Pull/Cancel Messages

Continue reading for a more in-depth look at each of these critical KPIs.

Customers often report that getting PCBA quotes from their contract manufacturers is too time-consuming and a major source of frustration. Here's what you should expect from a well-run contract manufacturer who's interested in your business. We'll be considering a number of different options, all of which will have an impact on the time taken to recieve a quote. Read on for more info.